The present invention relates to a technology of deriving a data conversion rule concerning transfer of data among different kinds of systems which technology is required in developing a complicated system by associating different kinds of systems, and the technology of implementing the data conversion.
Recently, a remark is placed on the technology of building a complicated system for offering a new service function for a short term and at low cost by associating the different kinds of existing systems.
Since each of the different kinds of systems has the mapping data format including a structure, a type and a code system of the data to be treated, the conversion of the data format among the different kinds of systems is indispensable for the purpose of transferring data among the different kinds of systems.
For this purpose, the technology has been proposed of converting the data according to the programmer's defined rules of the data conversion among the different kinds of systems or automatically creating a program for converting the data according to the data conversion rules.
These technologies are arranged to read as schema the data formats of the systems A and B that are different from each other and allow the programmer of the complicated system to map the data item in the system A to the data item in the system B, thereby defining the conversion rule.
In order to do mapping between these data items, however, the programmer has been required to have a good acknowledge on the data formats of both the systems A and B.
In the case of introducing the system C for newly receiving the data from the system A and then associating the system A with the system C, the programmer of the complicated system having a knowledge on the data formats of the systems A and C is required to take an operating step of mapping the data items with each other.
Further, if the system A is changed into the system A′ in this state, it is necessary to change the definition of the conversion rule of the data formats of the systems A and B and the definition of the conversion rule of the data formats of the systems A and C in a manner to make those definitions valid in the system A′.
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,828, therefore, when converting the data format of the system A into that of the system B, the technology has been proposed of providing a general-purpose and common type of intermediate data developed by the programmer of the complicated system, temporarily converting the data of the system A into the intermediate data on the basis of the rule of the conversion from the data format of the system A into the format of the intermediate data, defined by the programmer of the complicated system, and converting the intermediate data into the data of the system B on the basis of the rule of conversion from the format of the intermediate data into the data format of the system B.
This technology is arranged so that the programmer of the complicated system may execute the definition of the rule of the conversion from the format of the intermediate data developed by the programmer himself into the data format of each system to be associated therewith.
Hence, the programmer of the complicated system having a good knowledge on the system A executes the definition of the rule of the conversion from the data format of the system A into the format of the intermediate data, while the programmer of the complicated system having a good knowledge on the system B executes the definition of the rule of the conversion from the format of the intermediate data into the data format of the system B. These operations do not require each programmer to have any knowledge on all the systems about the association and are required to proceed concurrently.
In a case that a plurality of systems such as a system B and a system C are provided for receiving data from the system A, if the system A is changed into the new system A′, it is just necessary to change only the rule of the conversion from the data format of the system A into the intermediate data format.